Howard Pyle, a chronicle by Charles D. Abbott, with an introduction by N. C. Wyeth and many illustrations from Howard Pyle's works.

"MAGIC CASEMENTS"
rate we should be worse off than we are now. I only mean
that it is a good and pleasant thing to have something to
lend the more solid part a little savor now and then!
"So, here I'll sit; and, perhaps, when you have been
good children, and have learned your lessons or have done
your work, your mother will let you come and play a little
while with me. I will always be ready and waiting for you
here, and I will warrant your mother that I will do you
no harm with anything that I may tell you. If I can only'
make you laugh and be merry for a little while, then my
work will be well done, and I will be glad ln the doing of it.
"And now give me my cap and bells again, for my wits
are growing cold without them: and you will be pleased to
reach me my bauble over there, for I love to have him
by me.
"Will you be seated? And you, over there, seat the
baby on the grass! Are you ready? Very well: then I
will tell you a story, and it shall be about the 'Skilful
Huntsman.'"1
Then from this delightful preamble, one is plunged at
once into the pleasantries of fairyland. It is an admirable
beginning, and done in a fashion that immediately captivates both the adult who may be reading aloud and the child
who is listening.
The style in which the stories are written is deserving
of a word of praise. It is loose and rambling; there are
no long and involved sentences, almost never a subordinate
clause. It flows steadily along with no difficult decorations, no attempt to make the phrases tell a story in themselves. The narrative is slowly unfolded; simply and without turnings one event leads up to another with such clear[ 105]